Connecting Dots
by Nenny
Summary: You can't just do the things she'd done and not expect people to notice. Slight Hook/Emma If you squint. Spoilers for 2x10 "The Cricket Game."


A/N: This little one-shot was born out of the fact that Cora did a lot of very noticeable things in "The Cricket Game."

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_**Connecting Dots**_

Emma Swan, Storybrooke's Sheriff and Savior, groaned in frustration as she looked down at the report in her hand. A murder, no matter how heinous, she could tick off to a crime of passion and anger. A disappearance at the same time she could chalk up to an interestingly timed coincidence. But two disappearances in the same area and a murder occurring all within forty eight hours was something she couldn't ignore. Something was definitely rotten in the state of Denmark.

_**Something strange is going on, maybe Regina wasn't lying.**_Emma rubbed the bridge of her nose as that voice in the back of her head, she liked to call her conscience, came back with vengeance. It always did when she investigated things; she liked to think about it as her devil's advocate. It was the part of her that allowed her to look at a situation from all sides. It forced her to be fair, even when she didn't want to be.

_I saw her kill him with my own two eyes! What more proof do I need?_Emma hissed back as she stood slamming the file shut.

_**No you saw her use magic on him by using a spell you got from Gold, seems to me there's an awful lot of room for tampering there. Wouldn't be the first time your eyes deceived you. Or are you forgetting that Lancelot wasn't actually Lancelot?**_The insidious voice hissed back and she paused while opening a filing cabinet intent on starting the search of the missing men later, when she didn't have a funeral to attend. That was true; she'd seen Cora turn herself into someone else once. If she could do it, who's to say someone as powerful as Gold couldn't. Actually, it would be just the sort of manipulative thing he'd do and had done in the past.

Emma sighed and opened the file again. _Matthew Connors and Timothy Evans. How do they work into this though? They disappeared at the docks, on the other side of town, almost a day apart._

_**Maybe they saw something or even someone they shouldn't have.**_

Emma's brow furrowed as she walked back to her desk reading the file. It said that Connors owned a tackle shop and Evans was a local fisherman. _Or maybe there was some kind of bad blood between them and they got into a fight and are cooling off? The timing could be a coincidence._

_**You don't actually believe that. **_No, she really didn't. The last year, hell the last week in the Enchanted Forest taught her that coincidences when magic was involved were rarely coincidences. _**You have to investigate this until the road ends, you owe it to Henry and quite frankly you owe it to Regina. You would do it for anyone else, hell you did do it for Mary Margaret.**_

"Fine," Emma snarled out and grabbed her coat as she headed for the doors. It was just after noon and she knew there'd be plenty of people to question down at the docks. She would just investigate this and when it turned out there was no connection that damn voice would leave her alone. Too bad a large part of her had the feeling it wasn't wrong in the slightest.

0oo0o00ooo0o0o

Killian Jones lounged on some boxes at the stern of his ship, rum in hand, as he glared down at the man on the docks below him. Every day, every goddamn day, since their arrival that man sat there. Some day's he was reading, some days he was fishing, and some days he was just sleeping on the boxes and while he did Killian was trapped on his ship. If it wouldn't have made the situation any worse he would have ended the sorry excuse for a man's life days ago, but alas, he wasn't an idiot. It was bad enough Cora had disappeared the two people she had; sometimes he wondered if the woman thought at all. 'Killing' the cricket man in the guise of her daughter was one thing; but in a town this small and tight-knit from what he could tell, people were going to start noticing their friends were missing. If they didn't already.

He let his head loll back and he looked at the sky as boredom settled over him. He could, he supposed, get to the job or questioning the insect in his brig but the idea left something distasteful in his mouth that not even rum could wash away. He didn't like the idea that he had honestly become Cora's servant boy. She wanted to know what the man knew, so she tried to convince him that he should do all the hands on work while she flounced away somewhere. That and he didn't particularly savor the idea of torturing someone he neither hated, nor felt deserved it.

He ignored the sound of boots coming down the dock as he glared at the sky and it wasn't until the person spoke that he bolted upright, "Hi, are you Mr. Henderson?"

"Aye," the man said as he placed down his fishing pole and turned to face a woman whose presence sent an uncontrollable smile across the pirates face. "Who's askin'?"

He watched her sigh and then she put her hands on her hips. Her hand purposefully caught the side of her coat in a practiced moved and pulled it away from her body. It revealed to the man both the badge and the gun she had attached to her hip. Killian understood the gun, but what the shiny piece of metal meant he had no idea. However the other man didn't have the same issue and he was instantly on his feet with his hat off. "Sheriff Swan! Beggin' your pardon Miss, I didn't know it was you."

_"Sheriff?"_ Killian breathed in disbelief and his mouth fell open as he stared at her. _She_ was Sheriff of this little hamlet? _She_was the law here? Of all the professions he thought she might have in this realm, being the town's lawman was not one of them. Well she was just full of surprises. He closed his mouth and frowned as he stood and set aside his rum before walking to the rail of the ship; intent on seeing why she was here of all places.

"It's alright," She said loosening her arms again to fold across her chest, her coat falling into place. "I was just at Mrs. Connors house; she said that you're friends with her husband. You wouldn't happen to know where he was, would you?"

"O aye, I know Matt. He lets me work in the shop if I need some coin, and we fish off this pier on Saturdays. " Killian sighed deeply as he gripped the railing and his hook bit into the wood. He'd been afraid of this, people were missed and unfortunately that had put Swan on their scent. He pursed his lips, from the sound of it she was looking for the man who was now a fish.

"Right," she drawled the word and her head tilted as she eyed the man. "and did he have any enemies I should know about? Anyone that would want to hurt him?"

Henderson hesitated like he wanted to say something, but then he shook his head. However the damage had been done, and Emma had seen the tell. "Not that I know of, everyone liked Matt."

Emma was incredulous, but for some reason she didn't press him further. "What about Timothy Evans, you know anything about him?"

"Ol' Tim? Aye I know that drunken fish monger." Then the man paused as a thought seemed to come to him. "You don't think Tim had anythin' to do with Matt's disappearance do you?"

"Why would you ask that?" She replied. Her face was unreadable and serene like she didn't have a care in the world.

"Listen, I know Tim and I know Matt, neither would disappear like this and they never fought to my knowledge." He snapped, clearly defensive about his friends. "It wasn't him. It was that man form the other night I'm tellin you it was."

"Man?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, and Henderson froze in place with his eyes wide. He clearly hadn't meant to divulge that particular fact and Killian felt his stomach drop. No, he must be talking about someone else. Killian remembered that night he'd been stuck on the docks well, and he hadn't seen anyone wandering about. No it definitely wasn't him.

The loaf's eyes flickered around incessantly as if he was afraid someone was going to overhear their conversation, before he sighed, resigned. Killian sneered at the man; oh someone was overhearing this conversation alright. "Yes, the dark man I saw sittin' in this exact spot a few nights ago."

"Ok," Killian could tell that Emma was intrigued by this latest development. "and what did this man look like?"

"Dark hair, dark clothes, long coat and I'm pretty sure he was a fisherman." Killian's breath hiss as it moved through his clenched jaw, and all his hopes were dashed. Lovely, so he _had_been seen. Well there was still a chance she wouldn't connect the dots and think of him. He was supposed to be trapped in another realm after all. "I've never seen him before this, but that's not too strange these days. Lots of people who've been kept from the sea by the curse have returned."

Emma looked thoughtful, "Why did you think he was a fisherman?"

"He was sharpenin' a hook." Killian put his head in his hand as a look of recognition lit her face. Well, the element of surprise was gone. Killian dropped his hand and glared at the dim-witted man he was going to kill.

"A hook?" Emma asked and she looked like some had just handed her a death sentence. "He had dark hair, a long coat and a _hook_?"

"O aye, he was sharpenin' it here, as calm as he could be. That was before the woman with the umbrella came, strange one she was in that dress. I left when she came around, she made me uneasy."

Emma stood stock still staring at the man before, without another word, turning on her heel and walking swiftly down the dock. Instantly, almost against his will he moved to follow her, walking parallel down the length of his ship. She paused near the bow and pulled out one of those strange square trinkets he saw everyone using. He wondered, not for the first time, what was so interesting about them. She stood there, tapping away at the glass, which confused him even more, and then put it away. She sighed and rubbed her forehead, before starting forward again, but then she did something interesting. She paused and turned to look at the space his boat occupied.

He knew from personal experience, when he couldn't find the entrance a few nights ago, that the boat was very much invisible. But it was clear, as she moved slowly back down the dock, that if she couldn't see it, she could definitely sense that something was wrong. Again Killian matched her as she moved until she stopped in front of the gangplank and looked back and forth at the mooring.

Killian watched her, poised at the top of the plank, ready to grab her if she broke through the spell. Lucky for her, the thing in her pocket began to make music, knocking her out of her trance. She shook herself and turned away again. Then she pulled it out and began to speak into it as Killian let go of the breath he'd been holding. If she'd stepped through the spell he wouldn't have had a choice, he would have had to grab her and throw her down with the cricket. As it was, he was playing a dangerous game by not grabbing her and letting her leave with the knowledge that they were in town. Well, no matter, Cora need never find out that he'd overheard that conversation. He was supposed to be working over their guest after all.

Killian snorted, he had no interest in seeing her succeed. Especially not when the problems were of her own making. He took one more glance at the retreating back of the blonde before heading off to the hold. He had a job to do no matter how distasteful he might find it. It was time for the cricket to sing.


End file.
